I have been having an issue where my server is not booting whenever I install a PCIe card (PCIe x1). I have attempted booting using 16.04 and 14.04 and with several different PCIe cards but getting the same results.
During boot it will begin loading the kernel and then just hang. I have also tried with pci=noacpi which allows the server to boot but then I lose my USB ports (and keyboard).
I have tried to narrow down the issue and believe it is an issue with the kernel not allocating memory correctly to the PCIe card. The exact line from the kernel logs that I believe show the issue is as follows:
Mar 31 12:56:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.856793] pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR 6: failed to assign [mem size 0x00100000 pref]Any help with this would be appreciated.
1 Answer
I had a similar issue with a Dell R730 not allowing an operating system to load when a PCIE card was plugged in. If the PCIE card was not plugged in, I could load the operating system no problem. Afterwards, I plugged the card back in and it worked without an issue.
However, I discovered it was actually a BIOS problem on the Dell servers. I reverted back to 1.2.10 BIOS from April 2015 and the system allowed me to load an operating system with the PCIE card plugged in without an issue. I had also tried 2.0.2 from April 2016, and it still had the same issue, so some time after 1.2.10, Dell changed their BIOS and caused this issue.
